allo, allo

As we’ve probably said before, it’s incredible that of all the things either of us has ever been involved in, editing these letters has been the simplest, most enjoyable process, and the one which has had the smoothest path to production. It’s the sort of thing which absolutely couldn’t have happened anywhere else in the world, because nowhere else has the BBC.

It’s a giant organisation, with flaws. It’s easy to point them out. But EVERY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, basically, is jealous. Doesn’t that tell you that it’s worth keeping? If it doesn’t, why not? Do you think that market forces will create it, even though that has not happened ANYWHERE ELSE?

It’s funded by the license fee. In the end, this is not perfectly fair. It is counter-market. It gives the newspapers a harder job, because it gives them an unfairly powerful competitor. But on the whole, on average, it makes Britain a better place. That seems like a better bargain for a bit of market distortion than us paying a fortune into the pockets of venal railway bosses who are supposed to be operating in a market when, of course, they are not really.

When I started this post, I didn’t mean to do this rant. I just meant to say hi, and how happy we were with the first broadcast of series two. Sorry.

(Since this post contains Politics, I will say it was written by RH. Who knows what MP thinks, if she thinks at all.)